Origin of the Oceans | The Institute for Creation Research

 
Origin of the Oceans

Secular scientists are unclear as to the origin of anything: the universe, our solar system, the earth, the oceans, or the creatures that inhabit the oceans.

Where did the oceans come from according to evolutionists? Baby boomers may remember this "just-so story" described in the popular Time-Life book series (that includes a veiled swipe at the Biblical explanation while bowing to naturalism).

Finally the day came when the falling raindrops did not hiss away in steam, but stayed to start filling the crevices and corners of the naked planet. Then it rained, and the accumulation of the seas began. The accumulation did not take place (in the opinion of modern geologists) through "the greatest deluge of all time" that has so often been described. So far as anyone can tell, it may merely have rained as it rains today. Nature has plenty of time. It probably took a billion years to fill the oceans [emphasis added].1

Do secular scientists have any better ideas today? "The origin of the water in the oceans is unclear" states the University of New South Wales School of Environmental Sciences.2

For decades many planetary scientists believed that the ocean's water may have come from a rain of comets (so to speak) laden with water. But a 1999 Caltech study by a cosmochemist and his team threw a wet blanket on this theory when they measured significant amounts of "heavy water" (HDO) from the Hale-Bopp comet.3 This type of water contains deuterium, a heavier isotope of hydrogen having one neutron and one proton in the nucleus. If the "oceans-from-comets" theory is correct, our oceans should be deuterium-rich. They are not.

What do creationists say regarding the origin of the oceans? We look to the Biblical model and find that our planet began cool and covered with water (see Genesis 1:2) as opposed to the secular model stating it was molten rock with no water! On the third day of creation, the waters under the heaven were gathered into one place which God called Seas (see Genesis 1:9-10). Centuries later, at the Flood, He again covered the land with water, until the fountains of the deep were closed and the water receded steadily from the earth. As the fountains closed, the ocean floor sank, forming new and much deeper ocean basins (such as the 36,163 foot deep Mariana Trench), permitting the continents to drain and emerge from the waters.

Today's oceans eloquently testify to God's creative power, His judgement at the Flood, and His provision today.

_____________________________
1. Engel, L. The Sea, Time-Life Books, 1969, p. 38.
2.
http://www.irbs.com/bowditch/pdf/chapt31.pdf
3. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news008.html

Cite this article: Frank Sherwin, D.Sc. (Hon.). 2005. Origin of the Oceans. Acts & Facts. 34 (3).

The Latest
ACTS & FACTS
Pervasive Genome Functionality Destroys the Myth of Junk DNA
In 2001, the first rough draft of the human genome was published in a collaborative effort between private industry and the public sector.1,2...

NEWS
Happy Labor Day 2025
“For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9) Labor Day was...

ACTS & FACTS
The Age of Reptiles Myth
We hear about the Age of Reptiles, also called the Age of Dinosaurs, almost as early as we can understand the idea. Even kindergarteners might be taught...

ACTS & FACTS
The Tiktaalik Missing Link Myth
In 2004, the paleontological community—and the world—was presented with what many evolutionists considered to be a dyedin- the-wool missing...

ACTS & FACTS
Archaeopteryx, Myth of a Transitional Fossil
In 1860, one year after the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a wonderfully preserved fossil feather was discovered in...

ACTS & FACTS
Busting the Myth about Lucy
by Brian Thomas, Ph.D., and Chris Rupe, Ph.D.* Most folks consider our ape ancestry as established science, with Lucy as the main link. However,...

ACTS & FACTS
Evolutionary Vestigial Features: Worse Than Myth, a Scam
Due to teachers’ influence during the formative years of young people’s lives, they can be a powerful force in spreading evolution to new...

ACTS & FACTS
Blind Cavefish Unmask the Convergent Evolution Myth
Within the ever-expanding theory of evolution, there is a system of specialized language designed to identify each major interpretative concept. Some...

ACTS & FACTS
A Booming Generation
And the king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men, and answered them after the advice of the young men.…And...

ACTS & FACTS
Darwin's Galápagos Finches: The Myth of Natural Selection
A group of birds known as Darwin’s finches (genus Geospiza) lives in the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean 600 miles west of Ecuador....